Transcoding - Transcoded Material

My DP has FCP 7 and a DSLR camera.

I have FCP 6 on an early G5. I've tried raw DSLR footage and it doesn't play.

He transcoded the DSLR footage to ProRes 422 (HQ). Which again does not play.

I took the transcoded (HQ) and ran it through compressor again to simple ProRes 422.

It seems to be working fine.

Since I've transcoded files that were already transcoded, have I lost any quality? Is this something that shouldn't be done?

The footage looks great. But, maybe there's something I'm missing.

Thanks.

If you don't have the original cards or a copy of them your only method is to transcode from the ProRes HQ to ProRes which is suitable for FCP 6. Any very minor quality loss will be negligible.

Transcoding HDSLR H264 footage to ProRes HQ will not improve the quality, it will just give you larger files, ProRes SQ is as good as it gets. Even ProRes LT is suitable a lot of projects (if you are using FCP 7).

All you get with ProRes HQ is larger file versions of an already quality compromised H264 codec. Transcoding to ProRes HQ is a bit like painting a Ford Fiesta a Ferrari Red colour and expecting it to go faster.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
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